Aloha welcome to Tammy's Hawaiian Adventure

We left home on Wednesday April 10th, to catch our early flight from Winnipeg to Vancouver on Thursday. We were at the Winnipeg airport at 5 am (which is midnight in Hawaii).  Our plane left Vancouver at 10:05 am and we landed safely in Honolulu at 1:05 local time (6:05 pm Manitoba time).

My front yard, as you can see we are enjoying a late spring.  I saw a brown rabbit hoping along last week, obviously he didn't the email that winter has been prolonged in Manitoba.

Deck view the snow is starting to melt on the areas that were snow blown away from the house and Lily's racetrack.

Our backyard.  I'm trying something new with this camera using the date stamp.  Not liking it very much, will most likely turn it off today.

It was late almost dark and I was too tired to take good photos.  There will be better ones today once the sun rises. In Hawaii I turned on the camera's gps and lost the time stamp on the photos. 

Dear Readers do you have any ideas what the little flecks are in these photos...water? 

Today we make two trips back to Honolulu airport to pick up Jason & Karyann at noon, followed by Shannon & AJ at 6:30 pm. 

Canon PowerShot D20 - for Hawaii

First photo using the new toy.

 Lily was not that interested in modeling this morning.

The photos below were taken with my Canon SLR Rebel XT.  The Rebel is over five years old.  I love this camera, except it is big and bulky.

 

The colour is bluer using the PowerShot, but truer with the Rebel as the camera is turquoise blue and black.

 I used the macro setting and defused the flash by putting a white sheet of paper in front of it.

The new camera is waterproof, shockproof and freezeproof.  It can record video in full HD 1080p.  We are flying to Hawaii next week.  It should be excellent for our ocean activities.  As Doug pointed out, the only drawback, is that it does not float.  The Canon PowerShot D20 has a locking strap like a WII remote.

Happy Easter Monday all.

A wee bit of sewing in Trenton - Vizslas

In 2009 I made a queen sized card trick quilt for Shannon using tie-dyed batiks. Shannon loves this quilt so much that it was permanently displayed and used on her living room couch. On this visit, her quilt was no where in sight. After about two days, Shannon fesses up, apparently Penny loved the quilt too much....she chewed three little holes in it.

This is Penny, she looks pretty innocent to me. 

Did any one actually see Penny chewing the quilt?  Shannon's says "Trust me, I took the quilt right out of her mouth and gave her a severe scolding".

Shannon owns my favourite sewing machine, so it was a genuine pleasure to repair her quilt.

It was manufactured in Sweden in 1996, many folks believe the 500 series were the best sewing machines Husqvarna made.

Here's Shannon's quilt on a double bed after the repair job.  The three holes were small, only one was chewed through the back layer.

All three were chewed on white squares.  Shannon had some white fabric from a sheet which I used for patches along with stuffing from a recycled mattress pad.

I dropped the feed dogs, set the stitch length to zero and attached a free motion quilting foot.

There was only one hole that needed patch on the top side, the white patch is whiter than the off white square. The other two holes have the patch inside.

Back side.

It took about 15 minutes to fix, then I cleaned out the bobbin casing and set the machine back to straight stitching.

Another look at Penny...the quilt chewing culprit!  Shannon made the denim dog beds from recycled jeans.

Of course a lovely warm fire, makes a dog sleepy.

In July 2012, Shannon & AJ added Veto (dog on the right) to their family.  So now Miss Penny has a brother to chew on.

Have a super duper day!

More food in Trenton & Bruschetta Recipe

I made bruschetta served on home made pumpernickel bread and garnished with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  Roma tomatoes are most excellent for making bruschetta.  This is my recipe:

• one dozen ripe finely chopped Roma tomatoes
• a big handful of fresh curly parsley also finely chopped
• one tablespoon of crushed fresh black peppercorns
• five cloves of fresh minced or finely chopped garlic
• one teaspoon seasoning salt
• two tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• one quarter cup pure virgin olive oil

Combine all ingredients in large bowl.  Refrigerate for  at least one hour to blend the flavours.  Serve with baguettes, freshly baked multi-grain, pumpernickel bread or your favourite crackers.  In a pinch, this bruchetta makes a great salad dressing or condiment on scrambled eggs!  Enjoy.

For dinner oven roasted chicken with baked sweet potato, sugar peas, mashed potatoes and gravy.

This morning we walked along the 12 o'clock point (Trenton canal).

These photos were taken with my iPhone, it was very sunny hard to see the screen.

Home made chicken noodle soup today. I love cooking for my kids.

Dinner at Shannon's

So far I am loving retirement,We made a lovely meal of seared scallops, steelhead trout, with fettuccine Alfredo sauce with mushrooms and spinach. We also had humus with veggies and crackers and fresh baked apple pie.

Retirement Day two

Good morning! I guess old habits die hard, the dog got me up to go out at 6:20 am, I tried to go back to sleep afterwards, but it was a not going to happen. A most excellent time to blog.

Yesterday, I took Lily to the groomers for a spa day, then she had an appointment with the vet. She has been limping every day especially after snoozing on her pillow in the evenings.  Lily has injured her left back knee, the vet says its her cruciate ligament.  Now Lily is on a muscle relaxant and glucosamine pills, as well she has to rest. No more chasing rabbits at warp speed.

It is really hard to get a good photo of Lily on our walks, these were taken February 23 right after the snow plow cleared the public walkway in the park.  We got a big dump of snow on February 18 and again on February 21.

 

I don't know if you can tell from the photos, but this snowbank is taller than I am.  I'm guessing about six feet.

Our daily walk has been reduced to a short, short walk on lease for her to do her business. Lily is supposed to rest that knee as much as possible for a minimum of three weeks.  Of course, Lily doesn't understand about rest as English Springers are very active sporting dogs, keeping her quiet is going to be a major challenge.  We moved her kennel upstairs to my computer room.  Plus the vet feels Lily should loose another 8 pounds or 3.6 kilograms.  In May 2011, Lily was over weight at 64.9 pounds (29.50 kilograms).  I cut back her food and increased her exercise in May 2012 it was 58.52 pounds or 26.60 kilograms. Yesterday she was 53.24 pounds (24.2 kilograms).  I wish I had as much success taking weight off me as I do with my dog.

I wanted to show off her new hair cut but she was resting following her doctor's orders.

My wonderful husband bought me a retirement gift.  Doug was complaining the kids set the bar too high with the flowers and wine basket.  So Jason suggested he go shopping in a jewelery store.

Look at that....a simply gorgeous one karat brilliant diamond pendant!

That man has excellent taste in jewelery. He did real good at showing up the kids!

This is what my work desk looks like now.  Computer, monitor gone!  Yippee, I don't have to work any more.

Apparently, Lily doesn't know I retired, as her butt is parked where she sleeps when I was working.

 

These lovely retired ladies took me out to celebrate my birthday.  Our lunch date went from noon to 3 pm, followed by a wee bit of shopping.  I bought this pillow.

Today I plan to phone my mother, finish sewing dinner napkins for Shannon, bake bread and possibly make dinner for Doug.

Happy Friday all, hope you have a super duper day.